Tennis

Dudi Sela will climb into the world’s top 30 for the first time after making the last 16 at Wimbledon.

The unseeded Israeli’s fairytale run ended in the fourth round with a straight-sets defeat against fourth seed Novak Djokovic on Court 3 on Monday.

Having beaten two seeded players along the way, including Spain’s Tommy Robredo (15), the brave Sela, 24, was not outplayed by the Serb with the pair producing some entertaining rallies to keep a boisterous crowd on the edge of their seats.

Having beaten two seeds en route to the last 16, the brave Israeli was not outplayed by the Serb with the pair producing some entertaining rallies to keep a boisterous crowd on the edge of their seats.

In the end, Djokovic's booming serve, unerring consistency and accuracy proved decisive against a hard-working Sela.

Defeat saw Sela, 24, improve on last year's first round exit at his first Wimbledon.

Dudi Sela believes that he has a chance to shine at Wimbledon after reaching the quarter-finals of the Ordina Open in Holland.
Already enjoying a career high ranking of 47, the Israeli can expect to start the grand slam in an even higher position when the new rankings are announced on Monday.

Sela, 24, is riding high after reaching only his third quarter-final of an ATP tournament.

Andy Ram and Natalie Dechy lost to fourth seeds Max Mirnyi and Nadia Petrova in the quarter-finals of the mixed doubles at Roland Garros.

Having reached the second round of the men’s singles for the first time in his career with a four-set victory over Monaco qualifier Jean Rene-Lisnard, Israel’s Dudi Sela (55) was hammered by 13th seed Marin Cilic 6-0, 6-3, 6-1. It took the Croatian one hour and 23 minutes to get past Sela. “I played terribly,” said Sela. “I made so many errors and you can’t win games against players like Cilic like that.”

Dudi Sela goes into Monday’s French Open boosted by the news that he has risen to a career high ranking of 55. But the 24-year-old Israeli will not be encouraged by his form on clay as his preparations for Roland Garros ended prematurely with a first-round defeat at the Austrian Open.

Playing on his least favourite surface, Sela hopes to improve on his last two performances in Paris when he has failed to progress beyond the first round.